Nagasaki, Japan, 1945

The opening sequence of the novel is set in wartime Japan -- specifically, on the morning of 8/9/45, when the United States drops a nuclear bomb on the city of Nagasaki. The city is depicted as having its vibrant, cosmopolitan life drained out of it by the war efforts. For example, 21-year-old resident Hiroko Tanaka is forced to work in a munitions factory, instead of her regular job as a teacher, due to her father's provocative anti-war art. The city has prepared a number of public and private bomb shelters, and on the morning of the crucial bomb, most citizens had assembled in those shelters as a matter of routine.

Delhi, India, 1947

The next sequence of the novel takes place in India during the time when the British occupied the country. Although this was a political conflict not nearly as violent as World War II, there is a...